Change
by TurtleJustice
Summary: Looking back Jane couldn't believe she had been so heartless as to be glad when Gunther was chosen to take care of a pack of wolves bothering a neighboring village... but then again she hadn't known that events would change so drastically.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Jane and the Dragon. Thank You.

Note: This will be a multi-chapter story... but since I do not have all of the chapters ready it will probably take a while for me to upload. This is my first free night in two weeks.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this... now on with the story.

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_Important note: Jane is about 17 in this fic and Gunter is about 19!_

It had been your typical day in Kippernium, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and all was right in the world… Inside the great hall there was a meeting going on about who should go and defend a local village from a pack of ravenous wolves.

"Perhaps our young squires should take care of this unpleasant matter. The training might do them good…" Sir Theodore bowed his head in respect and said, "Of course your majesty! I do think that they could benefit from such an exercise… though I cannot spare both of them. What do you think Sir Ivon?" He smiled and said, "Ach, I think the training would do them a world of good. Though as you said we can't spare them both, perhaps young Gunther should go, the villagers might be more responsive to that and we could use Jane in helping us prepare for next week's celebration." Sir Theodore nodded in agreement, "An excellent idea Sir Ivon." Gunther's head shot up at this, "What!!! I mean of course Sir Ivon I would be most honored to take on this assignment." You could see the shock in Gunther's eyes when he heard this… for a moment anyways before he decided he might score big if he agreed with everything they said. Sir Theodore replied to Sir Ivon's statement, "Very well then! You'll leave first thing tomorrow morning and Jane I'll see you in the morning as well, we've got to get an early start if we want to finish everything I have planed." I bowed and said, "Very well Sir Theodore."

Normally I would have pressed the matter of how, "The villagers might be more responsive to that" but seeing the look on Gunther's face made me change my mind very quickly. He appeared in every respect to loath the idea and while I did want to go Gunther's dissatisfaction would make up for this countless times over. We had, as of late, been on worse terms than usual… if at all possible and I was feeling exceptionally cold towards him, despite the strange feeling I had felt a few days past; or perhaps that's where are worsening relations started…

Gunther and I had been practicing with staves in the yard, as we had done for years when Gunther somehow managed to sweep his stave under my feet and lay me flat on my back. He was standing over me with his usual triumphant look when time seemed to stop I looked up at him and felt something I had never experienced before. He must have felt it too because his look of triumph faded and was replaced with some new unknown emotion, and he just stopped in his tracks and stared at me. We stayed like this for a few minutes before the sound of Jester's bells knocked me out of my trance, I stood up hurriedly as though the ground had been on fire and nodded to Jester before leaving the yard as quickly as I could.

After that day there had been something different between us, I could never put my finger on it but I had been increasingly uncomfortable when I was around him and that turned into an ever growing number of insults on both our parts.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Jane and the Dragon. Thank You.**

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I arrived at the yard where I was to meet Sir Theodore so as to discuss today's assignment when I noticed Gunther mounting his horse to leave and again I felt strange… it was probably just the heat though and the lack of a proper breakfast, which I was already beginning to feel the effects of. Sir Ivon was giving Gunther one last lecture on how he should be careful, "never leave your back to the wolves," and to hurry back so he wouldn't miss the festivities. Once Sir Ivon had finished every one bid Gunther farewell and he made his way out of the castle.

Once Gunther had gone I made my way to Sir Theodore to see what chores he had in store for me… I had been polishing the silverware for nearly three hours and already I could feel the effects. I stopped what I was doing for a minute to stretch but when I tried to let go of the rag, my hand wouldn't open… perhaps it had been an understatement when I said I was _beginning _to feel the effects. I let out a quiet sigh and looked up at the sky… it was a wonderful day to be outside the sun was high in the sky and not a cloud could be seen, it was at that moment that my stomach decided to remind me that I had forgotten to feed it that morning. I decided to take my lunch break so I headed toward the kitchen in hopes of finding something to eat.

The weather had, in the short period that I had been inside, turned surprisingly cold and the wind had begun to pick up… it was only midday and Gunther was most likely not to the village yet, especially on such a nice day. He had probably stopped to eat lunch and he would pass by the gentlest part of the river, the temptation, on what had been an incredibly hot day would probably have been too much… I shook my head at this Gunther would be fine he is after all a squire, and one who in just a few short weeks would gain his knighthood. Yes he would be fine and since when would I care so much, despite our differences we still had moments when we would get along and he was still after all, a comrade of mine and we were both knights in training. But for some reason I kept worrying, I just felt this knot in my very heart as though I knew something was wrong. At that moment I saw Sir Theodore come racing towards me at an alarming rate, "Jane! Come help me lock down the castle, this storm seems to be getting worse." I had been so caught up in my thoughts I hadn't noticed how the weather had changed, small to medium size limbs were being torn off of the trees and all around it seemed as though the rain was dancing to the beat of the wind.


	3. Chapter 3

**Change**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Jane and the Dragon. Thank You.**

**Note: This is a rather slow chapter so be warned it may be a bit boring. I will probably change the last paragraph a bit when I get the chance but since it had been so long since I updated I thought I would do that later... so without further ado on with the story.**

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**Chapter 3:**

Once we had closed everything down we headed to the throne room to make sure the royal family was safe and secure. It seemed as though everyone from the castle had decided to take shelter there… even Smithy's new pig, at first I thought he would never get over the loss of his old one but when everyone had pitched in to buy him a new one he seemed to start to get over his loss. I think that after pretending that the new pig was taking the place of the old one he finally managed to build the foundation of a beautiful friendship… thinking of this seemed to bring back so many memories for when I looked around the room with each person I saw the journey I had seen them go on over the years, the changes and the similarities.

Rake and Pepper were in a secluded corner talking to one another, over the years there slight attraction towards one another had grown in to a full scale romance and Jester told me in the strictest of confidence that Rake was planning to propose to Pepper when he got the chance, or in my opinion nerve. Rake had always been a little nervous around her as it was, so it is hard for me to imagine him asking her to marry him, but love can make us do crazy things and for those of us who don't always throw those types of emotions out there for all the world to see it makes things doubly hard… but his feelings for her are so strong I think that it won't be to long before he finally gets his nerve.

Jester was with the royal children who seem to have grown up over night, the prince seems to have changed for the better over the years, he is no longer the annoying little brat that he once was. He seems to be taking his position seriously and he is becoming the type of man whom I would be proud to serve under. And princess Lavinia is slowly becoming a young lady and in my opinion will be as beautiful as her mother, it was a sad thing when she stopped wearing her wings so many years ago, while she is still as innocent and sweet as ever I fear she is growing up quicker than anyone would have thought, but that is mostly due to the fact that for some reason everyone in the castle expected her to somehow stay a little girl all of her life… it is a pity and yet a great joy to watch her grow from the little girl to a young woman, but she will be strong as well as the sweet beauty that we begin to see before us…

The sound of Jesters voice seemed to bring me out of this trance, he was telling his latest joke to the royal children. Now Jester had hardly changed over the years, he was much more accomplished to be sure but overall I had scarcely noticed a change… except for his behavior towards me, I had discovered his feelings for me through Pepper and had decided it best not to mention anything to him, if he decided to tell me he would do it in his own good time and besides I wasn't sure I wanted him to, after all we were such good friends and I would hate to spoil it.

My mother on the other hand kept nagging me to find a suitable husband while I was still young, I on the other hand was not so keen on the idea after all I am finally nearing the point where I will become a knight and in any case there weren't many men within a decade of my age anywhere in the kingdom of Kippernium and the only ones I knew were Jester, Smithy, Rake, and Gunther. Rake of course was out of the question because of Pepper and besides I could never see him as anything more than a friend. Smithy was far too busy with his duties and I had always looked on him as a good friend and nothing more. Jester is the sweetest man alive but he and I are so vastly different, out of all my friends though he is the only one I could possibly see as anything more than a friend… then there was Gunther. I couldn't help laughing at that idea, me and Gunther every part of my being rebelled at the thought, well almost every part after all even if he was a stupid, stuck up, and conceded man he did have some good qualities such as being handsome, strong, in some situations brave, and I had even seen him show acts of kindness when he thought no one was looking. Indeed he had improved since when we were first training together, we were comrades in arms and he had on a number of occasions risked his life to save my own, though I would never admit that I needed help on those occasions. He no longer tried to cheat on tests and do such horrible things as his father would want, indeed he had become the very opposite of his father and for that I am eternally grateful, I still cannot stand the man though for I cannot remember the last time we shared a civil word.

"Jane… Jane!" I turned around and said, "Oh I'm sorry Jester I was lost in thought." He smiled at this and I knew that he was just dying to make a joke but he refrained from doing so by asking me, "Sir Theodore just told me that Gunther was on the way to take care of those wolves when the storm started, do you think he will be alright?" Suddenly my mind was brought back to the present, "I need to go after him it's far too dangerous for him to be out there on his own in such a storm!" He shook his head at this and said, "The castle is locked down except for one gate which Sir Theodore left open so that when the storm died down a little he could leave with relative ease and he has forbade anyone from leaving the castle to go after Gunther, particularly you. You won't be able to get out of here unnoticed, and besides it is far too dangerous out there you said it yourself… you would just be putting yourself in the same danger that he is in then Sir Theodore or Sir Ivon would have to leave to go after you before it was safe enough."

"You are right Jester, indeed I cannot get out of here alone but if you would distract them as I am leaving and make it so they do not notice my departure then I could go find Gunther… please Jester you must do this for me." Again he shook his head and said, "No Jane it is far too dangerous for you to go alone…" His eyes lit up as though some great idea had just occurred to him. "If you let me go with you then I will help you escape." My eyes grew wide at this Jester out there in such weather it was not safe but perhaps if I could make him think that I agreed to this I could tie him up so that he could not follow me… but I could not deceive him in such a way. But if it was to protect him and to save Gunther… even then I could not, for if deceiving him wasn't enough tying him up was, but what of Gunther's fate…


	4. Chapter 4

**Change**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Jane and the Dragon. Thank You!**

**Note: I would like to apologies for any grammatical errors and also for the randomness of the updates... also I as of yet have no idea what is going to happen, I originally didn't intend for Jester to come along but he just sort of decided to come along (character do that sometimes, I'm not sure why).**

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**Chapter 4:**

I couldn't believe that I had actually taken Jester with me, Jester of all people… the risk that I put him in by letting him come with me all because I didn't have the nerve or the heart to tie him up. The wind was still blowing as hard as ever and the torrential rain made it almost impossible to see. We had been lucky enough to get to the gate let alone manage to open it when the wind seemed to want it closed.

When we finally reached the edge of the woods and the main path I began to wish we had taken horses for this journey even if it was safer to go on foot… "Jester are you sure you want to go through with this we are not very far from the castle and the wind would be at your back." he managed to shake his head even with the wind and said, "I'm not going to leave you Jane no matter how dangerous this is… and besides what would you do without your comic relief?" I couldn't help smiling at this I knew that he would probably rather be in the throne room with everyone else, dry as a bone in front of a roaring fire telling jokes and stories to the 'little' majesties. "Well then Jester here is the start of the trail so let's be on our way." He smiled warily and said, "Right you are, on with the show then."

Our progress seemed ridiculously slow, mostly due to the fact that neither the wind nor the rain had let up. Even with my training the constant battering by the wind seemed to take a lot out of me… I was surprised at how well Jester managed to keep up with me though, I hadn't thought he was in that good of shape, though I could still tell that he was very tired and could probably use a rest as much as me. "Jester!" I managed to scream over the wind, "I think we should rest for a while, we aren't making enough progress and besides if we did find Gunther and he needed help we wouldn't be in any shape to assist him." He nodded and said, "I think your right Jane, we could both do with a rest." With that I turned toward the forest and tried to find a place somewhat sheltered from the wind.

The roots at the base of a large tree seemed to come around like arms and it appeared to be large enough for the two of us to use. We would only have protection from the wind behind and to the side of us but it was better than nothing. Jester tried to lighten the mood by saying, "Isn't this cozy, we could not have done better anywhere in the castle to be sure." I smiled at this, I could think of at least fifty places off the top of my head that were better than this foul place. It was so like Jester to say something like this, if there was a heavy mood in the air he always felt as though he had to fight it with good spirits and laughter… I had never thought of Jester as a warrior or fighter of any kind but yet every day he had to battle people's bad moods and try to keep everyone's moral up. After all that was one of his many jobs, how many times had he fought my foul moods with his jokes and good natured comments. If I had had a bad day there he was just waiting to help, even when I would have rather stewed in my misery he was always there as happy as could be, or at least pretending to be. It was hard to imagine Jester as unhappy but I had seen it numerous times, and unlike me he didn't have the option of staying in that state of mind, for someone always needed him to lift their spirits.

We had nestled down at the base of the trunk and already Jester was asleep, the wind was picking up and the lighting seemed to be getting closer. I was not afraid of all this but looking over at Jester made me glad that he had come along. Sitting there for a few minutes made his comment come back to me, "Isn't this cozy, we could not have done better anywhere in the castle to be sure." Seeing Jester sleeping there, knowing I wasn't alone made me think that just perhaps what he said had some truth behind it.


End file.
